Above: the Ritz-Carlton Reserve Dorado Beach
By Alexander Britell
PARADISE ISLAND – The Dominican Republic added 224 new rooms in 2012, the largest total of any country in the Caribbean last year, according to data from STR.
Puerto Rico was second with 130 new rooms, adding stock to an industry that is showing improvement across the board.
As of December, there were 50 new hotel projects in the Caribbean, representing 9,500 rooms in the region’s total active pipeline, according to STR.
A large majority of those rooms are part of the nearly 2,200-unit Baha Mar project, which is slated for completion in December 2014.
As Caribbean Journal reported last month, Caribbean hotel occupancy rose 7 percent in November; according to STR, occupancy rose to 66.4 percent.
Right now, there are 1,884 properties, 222,000 rooms.
STR’s data samples 25 percent of those rooms.